8 best smart doorbells – ring the changes with our picks from Nest, Swann and more

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Smart doorbells are taking off in a big way. Sales of these crime-busting devices, which use in-built cameras, mics and speakers to connect the owner’s doorstep to their smart devices, hit a value of $500m worldwide in 2018. That figure is forecast to reach $1.4bn per annum by 2023.

How do smart doorbells work?

Most smart doorbells have functions including:

Sending notifications or calling the owner’s smartphone when someone presses the doorbell button;

Recording audio and video when someone (e.g. a trespasser) is in view;

Enabling the owner to speak to whoever is at the door via their connected device.

These features usually work with an app running off the owner’s phone or tablet. When buying a smart doorbell, it’s important to look into the app used to operate the device, as you will likely spend more time using the app than interacting with the doorbell itself.

Another key consideration is how the doorbell is powered. Some smart doorbells need to be hardwired in to your electrics. This option avoids the recurring chore of replacing or recharging dead batteries, but it also means installation is more complex and committal. Some manufacturers, notably including Nest, recommend this is done by a qualified electrician.

Other smart doorbells run on batteries. This makes installation easier, but might mean your doorbell has some downtime when its batteries need changing.

Finally, some smart doorbells connect to mains-powered, wireless chimes, which make a sound when someone rings the bell.

What are the benefits of a smart doorbell?

Perhaps the most compelling benefit of smart doorbells is that they seem to dissuade criminals from targeting a property.

As reported by USA Today, a 2017 Los Angeles Police Department study found homes equipped with a Ring video doorbell were over 50 per cent less likely to be burgled than comparable homes without one.

And in cases where burglars go ahead and break in anyway, a video-equipped smart doorbell may pick up footage that could lead to a conviction.

On a lighter note, smart doorbells can be useful for managing deliveries and talking to callers while you’re away.

When someone presses the buzzer, a call comes through to your smartphone, providing an audio and video link to the caller. This means you can tell couriers where to place a parcel, let friends and family know when you’ll be home, and say a nice warm “hello” to door-to-door salespeople, from wherever you are.

The Arlo Smart Wireless Doorbell is an audio-only device that works as part of a system with compatible Arlo security cameras and an Arlo Base Station. It can’t function without these other components, so do bear that in mind if you plan on buying it.

Unlike the other smart doorbells featured in this article, Arlo’s doorbell doesn’t have a camera. Rather, it serves as a doorbell and audio connection between your smartphone and the door – though it does connect to your Arlo security cameras as part of an audio-visual system. Its microphone picks up what callers say, and the device delivers your response via an in-built speaker. We found talking to callers using Arlo’s doorbell clear and convenient.

Another point worth mentioning is the Arlo Smart Wireless Doorbell’s looks. In our opinion, it is comfortably the best-looking smart doorbell on the market.

We tried it out with the Arlo Smart Chime (sold separately), a beautifully designed, mains-powered device featuring a range of pleasant chime sounds to choose from. You’ll need one of these if you want the doorbell to make a sound inside your home, as well as via your phone.

The Ring Video Doorbell was at the cutting edge of smart doorbell tech upon its release in 2013, and while smart security has moved on since then, this trailblazing device still stands up to scrutiny.

Whereas the more elaborate Ring Video Doorbell Pro (below) needs hardwiring into your electrics, the original also has the option of being powered via mains adaptor, which makes it far easier to set up.

It understandably looks and feels a little less refined than its successors, but the most important functionality is all there, from 720p HD, wide-angle footage, to two-way audio. It runs off the same app as the more expensive Ring smart doorbells, so the experience of using it is in fact fairly similar.

Though later Ring devices have surpassed it in style and performance, this one stands as a good, practical option at a mid-market price.

This doorbell offers much of the core functionality of doorbells from the likes of Nest and Ring at a far lower price – albeit in a less glamourous package.

The Swann smart video doorbell does the basics brilliantly. A great example of this is its doorbell button, which goes above and beyond to make its purpose clear. The button is coloured silver, in contrast with the device casing, there’s an LED ring around it, and it sports a debossed bell symbol. This may sound elementary, but some smart doorbells run the risk of confusing callers with minimal, not-so-obvious doorbell designs. That’s not the case with this one.

Like several other Swann security products, this one can detect heat as well as movement. This “True Detect” system means even an exceptionally stealthy trespasser will trigger the doorbell’s video recording – assuming they are a warm-blooded mammal like the rest of us.

Swann’s doorbell is an especially versatile option in terms of power, offering a choice between connecting to the mains or running off a rechargeable lithium battery. If you’re not 100 per cent sure on whether to install the doorbell permanently, you could first test it on battery power, then hardwire it afterwards.

If you’re looking for a video doorbell that works well and won’t cost a small fortune, this would be our top recommendation.

In our view, this is the best smart doorbell available from the best smart doorbell manufacturer in the business: Ring. The doorbell works fantastically well, the Ring app works even better, and the product comes in at a slightly lower price than some of its best competitors, such as the Nest Hello and the ERA DoorCam.

The Ring Video Doorbell 2 has some really nifty features too, including a removable battery pack allowing for easy recharging; zonal motion detection sensitivity control, which is great for stopping the camera automatically recording things like cars driving by; and a 160° horizontal viewpoint that’s ideal for capturing a full view of the doorstep and whoever is on it.

ERA’s solid, smart-looking DoorCam is both impressively effective and refreshingly straightforward. Its app is brilliantly easy to use, providing alerts when the doorbell is pressed and/or when motion is detected, according to your preference. A reliable two-way talk function allows for communication between caller and homeowner.

While most smart doorbells do a great job on the smart tech front, few of them are equipped with a good-sounding chime. The ERA Doorcam’s chime bucks that trend, with excellent sound quality and a melodious selection of tones. You can buy extra chimes to place around the property, if you’re worried you won’t be able to stay in earshot of just the one.

Another impressive feature is the history log within the DoorCam app, which you can use to play back footage of activity captured by the camera.

The DP1 is a smart peephole, incorporating a doorbell button and chime. It consists of two main parts: a camera that slots into the front of your door, and a viewing/control screen that connects to the camera and sits on the back of the door.

The video quality is easily good enough to capture the detail of what’s happening on your doorstep, and having the playback on-screen, on the inside face of the door, is uniquely useful for vetting callers before you let them in. You can set the device to record callers automatically when it detects movement, or alternatively, at the press of a button on the playback screen.

Configuring the DP1 using its screen is refreshingly straight and to the point. You can set the sensitivity of the camera’s “human detection” on a numbered scale, and tweak settings such as brightness and doorbell volume to suit your home.

As is true of traditional peepholes, installing this device is quite a commitment: you’ll need to drill a hole in the door to fit it.

Ring’s smart doorbells have always been good – but you’ll quickly get a sense of what an upgrade the Ring Video Doorbell Pro is when you open its slickly put-together packaging.

The doorbell is slender and stylish, with a nice matte-textured button that feels appropriate to the product’s considerable price. There’s a choice of four frontplates in the box, including one in a lovely shade of cream, and another in the classic silver that goes so well with the emblematic blue of the doorbell’s LED light.

The Video Doorbell Pro is hardwired, not battery powered, and therefore takes a little more effort and know-how (or professional help) to set up. This includes installing an electrical transformer to sit between your mains power supply and the doorbell. The long-term reward for this initial elbow grease is a power supply you can trust not to cut out, and a device that won’t ever need its batteries changing.

The video quality is also predictably superb, with 1920 x 1080px footage and crystal-clear two-way talk available over the Ring app. We used the device with the Ring Chime Pro WiFi Extender (sold separately) to ensure excellent connectivity between the doorbell and our WiFi.

Our ibuys experts give impartial advice on a range of products after testing them in real-world conditions. Prices are correct at the time of publishing but may vary slightly afterwards. If you would like to suggest a product to test or have a question related to ibuys, please email us on [email protected]

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